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One of the mysteries of the administrative simplification section of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is determining who is covered or comes under the requirements of the act. This article will examine HIPAA to unravel some of the mystery of &quo....

If your organization is covered by HIPAA, do you know what’s expected of you-and of your vendors-with regard to privacy of health information? To make sure your organization is in compliance, contracts with business partners will need careful review. The author offers an overview of....

While all regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) directly affect how we manage health information, the privacy regulations are central for HIM professionals. It has always been our privilege to serve as patient advocates for information priv....

The HIPAA-mandated privacy officer role offers a new opportunity for HIM professionals. What skills are required, and what needs to be done first? This article answers these questions. As healthcare organizations roll out their plans for HIPAA implementation, many HIM profession....

Amid much fanfare that included a ceremony with AHIMA representatives as invited guests, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the HIPAA standards for privacy of individually identifiable health information on December 20, 2000. The rule was published in the Feder....

Healthcare leaders say there’s no time to waste on serious compliance work, and HIM professionals will be at the heart of the action in this area. Eunice Little isn’t nervous about HIPAA. After all, she and her colleagues at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles are in the small m....

Change has been a constant factor in coding and reimbursement with the intensified focus on billing, compliance, and cost control. Out of necessity, coding professionals in physician settings have learned to be organized, adaptable, and armed with the latest information. The mandates....

As children, most of us stood against a door frame while our parents recorded our height and the date on the wall. These marks climbed each year as reminders of the changes we were experiencing. When relatives visited, we proudly showed off our progress to adulthood.

The recently published final regulations for transactions and code sets under HIPAA are the light at the end of the tunnel in the quest for uniform healthcare standards-and the first step on a long road to HIPAA implementation. What are the standard transactions and code sets? This article tak....

Organizations must provide general awareness training for every employee and affiliate. This process should build general awareness of confidentiality and security issues for all employees. For employees with access to electronic health information, the organization should include job-specific....

Cost: how much money needs to be invested? By now, most of us have discussed the implementation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) final rules with our administrators, and naturally the question has been raised, “Just how much is this going to cost me?”Most lik....

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and its related transaction, security, and privacy regulations apply directly to certain entities, but not to all recipients of health information. The regulations define three classes of “covered enti....

Readers will notice that some word such as "healthcare" may be written in more than one way in this analysis. Style guides often require the term "healthcare" be stated as such, however, the federal government uses the term as "health care." In this document we will be using the te....

With the pending impact of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements and the high hopes for fully automated e-medical informatics, healthcare information professionals must gain an appreciation for the edge of their networks. More than ever before, the edge....

HIM professionals have new HIPAA challenges to prepare for: this summer, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the highly anticipated final rule for certain transaction sets and codes.1 The rule was effective on October 16, 2000, and under HIPAA legislation, most....

Until now, the section of HIPAA calling for recommendations on uniform data standards for patient medical record information has not received much attention. However, these recommendations have important implications for HIM professionals. Here’s an overview of the history and significance of....

If you're wondering how to interpret the proposed privacy and security rules related to HIPAA, you're not alone. The requirements of these rulesand the similarities and differences between themare surrounded by confusion and controversy.

Confused about the differences between privacy and security? You’re not alone. Combine these with the jargon-laden chain of trust and business partner agreement issues, and a whole new set of questions about HIPAA implementation emerges.

The long-anticipated final rule for healthcare electronic transactions and code sets was released on Thursday, August 17, 2000. This final rule (Rule) is the first of several anticipated for release by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) over the next four month....

As we have seen in previous installments, part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's purpose is to establish standards and requirements that make it easier to maintain and transmit health information electronically. These provisions, known as the administrative simplific....

In March, the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) Subcommittee on Standards and Security reached an agreement with six standard-setting organizations. The six organizations include the Accredited Standards Committee X12, Dental Content Committee, Health Level Seven,....

What if a healthcare workstation could automatically recognize who was requesting access to its information and resources? What if users could be positively identified by simply approaching the workstation, or if workstations “knew” when authorized employees walked away, instantly closing con....

What do the proposed privacy regulations mean to HIM professionalsand what can you do now to begin to prepare? The author takes an in-depth look at the proposed rules. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 is bringing significant changes to the ma....

How ready are healthcare organizations to put the proposed security regulations connected to HIPAA into effect? What are the next steps-or, in some cases, first steps-HIM professionals should take? Our panel of experts offers some advice.

(Editor's note: This is the first in a series of special inserts intended to help HIM professionals educate themselves about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act [HIPAA] of 1996. In this installment, we take a look at this groundbreaking legislation from a nuts-and-bolts pe....

2000 HIPAA Conference Presentation Code Sets Presented by Pat Brooks, RHIA HCFA Standards for Electronic Transactions HCFA-0149-P Published May 7, 1998 Final not yet published To be enacted 2 years after final notice (3 years for small plans) Proposed Initial Standards for....

2000 HIPAA Conference Presentation Fundamentals for the Newly Initiated Margret Amatayakul, Margret\A Consulting, LLC Session Objectives Get an overview of the original legislation, processes, and timelines Examine the scope and impact of the new regulations Review ongoing HIPAA impl....

On January 18, 2000, AHIMA submitted comments to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the proposed rule for 45 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Parts 160 through 164: "Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information." The proposed rule....

When the final security standards related to HIPAA are published later this year, the race to implement them will be on. Are you prepared? The author offers a handy set of guidelines. The wait is almost over for the final security standards required by the Health Insurance Portability an....

Considerable attention has been paid to the development of organizationwide information security policiesespecially what they should contain and how they should be put in place. But enforcing these policies isn't always easy. We asked four information security experts to give us....

HIPAA has brought patient identifiers into the spotlight. But what's the best option? The author of a national study offers an overview. Envision all of the players in the healthcare systempatients, providers, health plans, and payers. Now, envision all of the day-to-day processes t....

A recent notice of proposed rule making for an electronic signature standard, if adopted, will affect the way health information is managed for years to come. Here's what you need to know about electronic signature and what the proposed standard may mean for HIM. The Health....

On August 12, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published the notice of proposed rule making on standards for the security of individual health information and electronic signature use by health plans, healthcare clearinghouses and healthcare providers. These standards are part....

On July 6, 1998, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a white paper on unique health identifiers for individuals. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), HHS Secretary Donna Shalala is required to adopt standards that suppor....

The federal legislation for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the need in healthcare for security of confidential data have come together to heighten the interest in security standards for electronic health information systems. Th....